The Wemstroms: In surveillance era, big brothers are everywhere

Patty received a Kindle for her birthday a couple of years ago. Not being completely technologically savvy, she finally decided to read a book on it.

There were dotted lines under what seemed to be significant passages, and a message saying, “Click for number of highlighters.” Then “31 highlighters” appeared above the passage. It’s interesting to know 31 readers found a passage important, but “how does Amazon know how many people highlight a passage?” and “if I highlight a passage, does Amazon know about it?” (The answer is yes, once you turn on the Wi-Fi).

We were recently at a meeting where a participant noted she has a software program that tells her if we open her emails. It even lets her know if we actually read them (or at least if we scroll down).

In the first column we wrote for the Journal-Standard, back in 2010, we quoted Emerson: “Society never advances . . . For everything that is given, something is taken.” For all the amazing advances in technology, we have to a large extent given up our privacy. For the luxury of knowing the opinions of other people, we read a book with a corporate computer looking overour shoulder and watching what we highlight.

For the convenience of sending and receiving messages instantaneously, we are subject to a program noting whether we “open the envelope and read through.” And of course, we’re all familiar with the ads that appear on our computer after we have looked at a website.

The excesses of the National Security Agency have been widely publicized, and whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden have revealed the extent of information gathered by the government and how easily it can be misused. The possibility of another McCarthy-type witch hunt is scary, especially when we remember that as recently as 2008 U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann wanted an investigation conducted on members of Congress to see if any were “anti-American.”

And it’s not just the government. Corporations and colleges have demanded Facebook and Twitter accounts from prospective hires and students. People have been fired from their jobs because of what they tweeted or wrote on Facebook, and students have been denied admittance to universities.

Not only do governments and corporations know all about us, but all kinds of unscrupulous people can launch new and better scams. We’ve gotten emails, supposedly from our server, claiming some kind of problem that necessitates our emailing the password so the problem can be fixed.

We’ve gotten similar emails from “banks” and from “Paypal accounts” also asking for passwords. And of course, we’ve all gotten those messages from “friends in trouble,” who write with “tears in their eyes.”

One remedy is to be very careful. Make up passwords that are unusual (they say the worst password is “password”), and don’t keep the list on the computer. Be leery of emails whose senders you do not recognize, and verify requests by making phone calls.

We must have safeguards so that information obtained by governments or corporations is not unfairly used against us. “An Open Letter to Washington” in the Dec. 9 New York Times, signed by eight major tech companies including Google and Facebook, urges the government to “make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight.”

There should be laws preventing entities from demanding emails or social network accounts without warrants. We will never completely regain our privacy, but we should insist that both government and corporations protect our interests.

Meanwhile, be careful what you write on Facebook.

Chuck and Pat Wemstrom live in rural Mount Carroll. They can be reached at patandchuck@gmail.com.